Tim Thomas arrived in Ottawa as an almost mythical figure – The Goalie the Senators Couldn’t Solve.By the end of his team’s 3-2 loss at the Canadian Tire Centre, he probably wished he’d spent the afternoon at the hotel watching Duck Dynasty.

Thomas probably played well enough to win, but Florida’s punchless power play (0-for-5) and haphazard defensive play was too much to overcome.

Kyle Turris, Mika Zibanejad and Clarke MacArthur scored for the Senators, who won their third straight game to improve to .500 at home (3-3-2). Backup goalie Robin Lehner stopped 26 shots for the win.Nick Bjugstad and Marcel Goc responded for Florida, while Thomas stopped 29 in a losing cause.

Thomas entered Saturday’s game with a lifetime record of 23-9-2 against the Senators, with six shutouts along the way. Of course, he played each and every one of those contests with the Boston Bruins, arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference for years now.

Behind arguably one of the worst, he wasn’t nearly as dominant. The Panthers, 27th in the NHL prior to Saturday’s slate of games, are just 1-6-1 on the road this year and have just one win in their last 11 games.

In an effort to stanch the bleeding, general manager Dale Tallon fired head coach Kevin Dineen and his staff Friday, replacing him with interim bench boss Peter Horachek.

Horacek got a first-hand look Saturday at just how much work he has to do.

Thomas may be an ardent lover of freedom, but he couldn’t have been happy about how much of it the Senators enjoyed inside the Florida zone early in the first period.

A couple of atrocious giveaways allowed the Senators to score twice in the opening 2:04 of the game.